Athens, Greece - Day 1

Once again, we woke up early Wednesday morning, prepared for a long day of traveling, and walked to the Thessaloniki train station to board our train to Athens. Unfortunately, the train was delayed by over an hour. And, even when it came, we spent over 30 minutes trying to find our seats. It was hard to communicate not knowing the language. However, we were able to find some English speaking people. They directed us a few carts down, which was a sleeping cart, where we were not allowed. After being told to go to the same cart 3 or 4 different times, then getting kicked out of it for being in the wrong place, we finally gave it one more shot. This time, the sleeping cart had magically turned into a normal cart, and our seats were exactly where everyone had been telling us. Weird that they changed carts during our boarding time! That made it very confusing! At least we got to where we needed to be. I wish I had understood some of the language!

The train ride to Athens from Thessaloniki was pretty long, but at least I was able to spend a lot of the 6 hours catching up on a bit of sleep, as well as enjoying some beautiful scenery. The surroundings quickly became much different, as cities became harder to find and the landscape became very rocky and mountainous.

When we finally arrived in Athens, we took a short bus ride into the city, to the Athens International Youth Hostel. The hostel was pretty nice, and we stayed around that vicinity for the night, as it was already very late. Other than going out to get a quick gyro within a few blocks of the hostel, we just stayed in. We did get some neat sights from the balcony though. First, a covered motorcycle drove by, with a German Sheppard “surfing” on its roof. Minutes later, a cat across the street was jumping balcony to balcony, a couple of stories up. Athens sure had some crazy animals!

Before heading to bed, we packed up all of our belongings appropriately into our carry-ons, as we had yet another trip to make in the morning. This one sounded well worth the effort though: A short flight to the island of Crete!

Thessaloniki, Greece

We woke up early once again on Tuesday morning, and jumped on a train from Vienna to Thessaloniki, Greece. I was very excited to be on my way to Greece, as it is one country I had always hoped to get to. We arrived at the train station in Thessaloniki pretty late, and walked a couple of blocks to our hostel. Along the way, we quickly realized that it would be a lot harder for us to communicate in Greece. The writing on the signs was like nothing I have ever seen before. I knew it would be different than our phonetic language, but I had no idea the extent of it. After all, how are you supposed to pronounce a word that begins with a triangle?

Luckily, the receptionist at our hostel spoke English, and we brought our luggage to our room. Then, we went out to look for something to eat. First, we stopped for a quick gyro. Then, since we were looking to save a bit of money, and had a long train ride ahead of us in the morning, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up some food for the next day’s breakfast and lunch. We also picked up some Grecian beer, Mythos and Vergina, for that night.

Of course, since we were in Greece, Matt and Sherman found it necessary to buy an entire block of feta cheese, and eat it all back in the room. I gotta say, that was one of the grossest things I have ever witnessed. There is almost nothing more disgusting than people digging into a floating block of cheese. After trying hard not to gag, and finishing off the beer, we headed to bed to get ready for our long trip to Athens in the morning.

Vienna, Austria

While I was sad to be leaving Salzburg early Sunday night, it was still exciting to be on a train heading towards Vienna, the famous capital city of Austria. We arrived in Vienna within a few hours, and made our way to our hostel. Since it was already very late, we set down our luggage, and headed into the city for dinner. After looking around for a bit, because almost everything is closed on Sundays, we finally found a small restaurant to sit down in. There, we ordered schnitzel and the local beer called Gösser. While German is the country’s language, people spoke much differently than people in Germany, almost to the point where it was often very hard to understand a lot of what they were saying….similar to the difference between English spoken in the USA and England. Nevertheless, we were able to survive no problem. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel for the night, eager to get a good night’s sleep after sleeping on the train the night before. Before heading to bed, we met a handful of our roommates, who were from Nebraska, Brazil, and Australia, and who were all very nice. After a few drinks with them, we headed to sleep, so that we could wake up early the next morning.

As we hoped, we woke up relatively early on Monday morning, and headed into the city to explore. After stopping at a small store to pick up some stuff for breakfast and lunch, we made our way into the heart of the city. As we stepped out of the subway, we wandered into the Stephansplatz, a famous square in the center of Vienna. There, we got to see the Haas-House, a strange glass building, and one of the world’s largest churches in the Stephansdom. The church itself was not only huge, but beautiful as well, and the square was absolutely packed. Not only were there tourists as well as locals everywhere, but there were also numerous street performers: painters, singers, guitarists, break dancers. The number of people was absolutely incredible.

Past the Stephansplatz, we made our way along the Ringstraβe, a famous boulevard on which most of the city’s monuments, parks, and famous building lie. Our first stop was at the beautiful Rathaus, which was surrounded by gardens, parks, and water fountains. In addition, directly in front of the Rathaus, a large stage and bleachers were being set up, as a viewing point for the upcoming 2008 European Cup soccer tournament. It looked like it would sure be a lot of fun, especially as Vienna would be hosting much of the tournament.

Continuing along the Ringstraβe, we next passed the Peterskirche, Burgtheater, Vienna University, the Parliament of Austria with the famous monument of Pallas Athena, the Museums of Natural History and Fine Art, the Hofburg and outer Burgtor at the Heldenplatz, and the Staatsoper. From there, we passed the Votivkirche, then relaxed for a bit in the Park Burggarten, dedicated to Mozart, and next to the House of Butterflies. Shortly after, we passed by the Michaelerkirche and the old Hofburg, and passed through the arch at the Michaelerplatz.

Next, we made our way to the Schwarzenbergplatz, where we saw the large fountain, the Hochstrahlbrunnen, and the Monument of the Red Army. We continued on past the Karlskirche, then walked to the enormous Belvedere, where we went through the mazes of gardens and fountains. At the souvenir shop just outside the gates of the Belvedere, we were laughing at a sign above the door that said “Sharon Stone’s choice,” when the guy in the picture ran over all excited to say that was him shaking Sharon Stone’s hand. It was pretty funny just how excited he was….he felt like a celebrity!

From the Belvedere, we took a bus to the city center, and walked along the Graben, another famous street in the heart of Vienna, known for its Pestilence Column. There, we stopped for dinner on a small side street, before heading back to the hostel. Once at the hostel, we mat back up with some of our roommates, and headed to a nearby pub for a few drinks before we headed to bed for the night.

Salzburg, Austria

The weather had finally become beautiful in May, and I was outside at a cookout in the field behind Weststadt. I was talking to two of my friends, Matt and Sherman, who I met here in Braunschweig, and who are both from Canada. Between beer, bratwurst, and football, they were telling me all about their upcoming excursion to Austria and Greece, which sounded like a lot of fun. (BTW….What a small world! I met another kid who had just moved into Weststadt 2 days earlier at the cookout. From where? Right outside of Worcester. How weird!). Anyways, after telling me all about the trip they were planning, Matt and Sherman invited me along with them. It was certainly tempting, but I knew that it would be tough to miss more work, especially since I would be going home for Rachel’s graduation. So, I took about two minutes to think about it, before I realized that, hey, I’m not getting paid for work, I’ll do whatever the hell I want. With that, I signed myself up for the 10 day trip that would begin the following week.

On May 10, me and Sherman caught the 6:20 pm train to Hannover, where we met up with Matt, who was returning from a soccer game. The station was absolutely packed with people from the game. It doesn’t take long to realize that people here in Europe practically worship soccer, and a lot of the fans can get pretty crazy. At least we had some entertainment, with all of the big, drunk, German guys singing soccer cheers together while sucking down the last of their mini-kegs.

After a brief stop in Hannover and some quick dinner, we jumped on the 7:41 train to Salzburg, Austria. The train ride was pretty long, but we were at least able to get a couple of hours of sleep. Thank God for my fully charge iPod! We finally arrived in Salzburg around 5:15 the following morning, and stowed our luggage in the train station lockers, as we were only in the city for the day. We had a quick breakfast, and were off and about.

The moment we stepped out of the train station, I knew that I would love Salzburg. Right on the Salzach River, Salzburg is a relatively small city, or more like a town, surrounded by mountains on all sides. Two small mountains, the Mönchsberg and the Kapuzinerberg, are directly within the city, while alpine peaks begin only kilometers away with the 1972 m Untersberg. This landscape was quite a contrast to the busy cities we usually visit, and an outdoorsman’s paradise.

We began the day by crossing the Salzach River, and heading into the beautiful Old Town, which has been named a World Heritage Site. We passed Wolfgang Mozart’s birth-house, and continued to make our way along the famous Getreidegasse, from where we could see the incredible Fortress Hohensalzburg high above the city, resting upon a hill.

The morning was absolutely beautiful, and with the incredible scenery, it was easy to see why Salzburg was chosen as the location where the filming of The Sound of Music took place. The mountains were just as amazing as the film made them out to be. With plenty of time to explore, we began a hike up the Mönchsberg towards the fortress. Along the way, we enjoyed plenty of once-in-a-lifetime views of the surrounding Alps. Finally, we reached to fortress gate, and the trees opened up to the city below, offering another incredible, birds-eye view, of all of Salzburg.

After spending hours wandering the mountain, we descended back into the city for lunch. We passed the Salzburg Cathedral and Nonnberg Abbey, as well as numerous churches along the way. After a quick bit to eat, we stopped at a couple of Biergartens for a few pints of the local Austrian beers, before we had to head back to the train station. Even with Vienna coming up, I knew Salzburg was one city that I would be sad to leave.